Idyllwild is a 'little paradise' for residents. They now wait to see the Cranston Fire's damage.

Angel Herrera, 6, at right, and his mother Vilma Herrera (not pictured) were displaced from Idyllwild because of the Cranston Fire and have spent three nights at the American Red Cross shelter in Banning High School.(Photo: Omar Ornelas, The Desert Sun-USA TODAY NETWORK)

The Banning High School theater has been transformed from its habitual performing arts hub to an evacuation center for dozens displaced by the Cranston Fire.

Inside, Vilma Herrera, an Idyllwild resident and mother to 6-year-old Angel Herrera, has created a makeshift home for the two. She struggled with how to tell her son — whose first experience with a wildfire happened when he was nine months old and still too young to understand — that this fire was possibly caused by arson.

Because her son is older now, "he's more knowledgeable," she explained in Spanish. "He wants to return to his house now."

The Cranston Fire, which began Wednesday and has since burned through 13,118 acres remains at 17 percent containment as of Saturday. Two firefighters suffered minor injuries, but they are back on the ground.

The U.S. Forest Service has closed the San Jacinto Ranger District and Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument due to the fire.

Brandon N. McGlover, a 32-year-old man from Temecula has been linked to the fire by officials, as well as two others — one in Sage and another in the Anza area. He was charged with 15 counts of arson and plead not guilty on Friday.

The Cranston Fire is one of several wildfires underway. The Ribbon Fire, which started on Thursday, is at 200 acres with 60 percent containment as of Saturday. The Carr Fire, up north, in Shasta County, was ignited by the mechanical failure of a car on Monday and has wrecked havoc on 500 homes. At least two firefighters have died battling the flames. Trump issued an emergency declaration for California due to that fire Saturday afternoon.

In its path, the Cranston blaze has also left destruction, turning homes on Deer Foot Lane into debris, leaving one house with nothing but a burned bathtub sitting atop the ashes as proof that it was once a home.

From left, Auggie Berg, a hiker passing through Idyllwild and Reba Coulter, a resident of Idyllwild have spent three nights at the American Red Cross shelter in Banning High School due to the Cranston fire. (Photo: Omar Ornelas, The Desert Sun-USA TODAY NETWORK)

Tranquil and serene, Idyllwild has been described by those who live there as a “little paradise.”

Below, in Banning, where the evacuation shelter is located, these very residents with an abundance of hope that their small town will recover, waited anxiously, wondering if they still have a home to return to.

Within the Banning High School theater, green cafeteria tables and 40 cots lined the walkway to the distressed evacuees. Some cots were occupied, while others appeared untouched.

Volunteers paced back and forth, distributing water and checking in on the people of Idyllwild. Some of the residents looked solemn, concern splattered across their faces, but a willingness to talk intact. Others, offset by their current conditions, insisted on keeping to themselves.

Riverside County officials set up the evacuation site on Wednesday. Friday evening, responsibilities were handed over to the Red Cross. "We have volunteers making sure that their stay here is as comfortable as possible," Tony Briggs, Regional Communications Director for the Red Cross told The Desert Sun.

Twelve years ago, Herrera traded the ambulance sirens and rotor noise of choppers in Los Angeles for the "complete silence" of Idyllwild. “Living in a mountain is indisputably different,” she said.

Idyllwild, she said, is a small but tight-knit community where she cleans houses for a living and doesn’t fear for her safety. It's her home, so to have someone threaten the very peace that defines it, that’s something she just can’t wrap her head around.

“It’s unexplainable. It’s a life, a job one’s left behind. It’s 12 years living there and, in an instance,” Herrera said, choking on tears, “you leave everything. It’s hard.”

Herrera fled her home in an hour on Wednesday, around noon, with only documents and the lightest clothing items she could pack. “Four adults live in my house and my son,” she said, explaining that her son is the main reason she decided to leave as quickly as she did. “I was working, right there, in Idyllwild, not too close to the fire, but everyone started asking if it was getting closer to the town.”

Like her son, Herrera can’t wait to get back to Idyllwild, and she’s not alone in this sentiment.

Robert Deville and Paige Tyley look out at the Deville family's horses after they were brought back to Garner Valley, July 29, 2018. Garner Valley was evacuated on Friday as the Cranston Fire threatened the area. Zoe Meyers/The Desert Sun

Kyle Stephens and Carra Mathewsod with Riverside County Animal Services bring food for a cat at the request of the home owner who was evacuated because of the Cranston Fire. Photo taken on Saturday, July 28, 2018 near Idyllwild. Richard Lui/The Desert Sun

Kyle Stephens and Carra Mathewsod with Riverside County Animal Services bring food for pets at the request of the home owner who was evacuated because of the Cranston Fire. Photo taken on Saturday, July 28, 2018 in Idyllwild. Richard Lui/The Desert Sun

Kyle Stephens and Carra Mathewsod with Riverside County Animal Services bring food for pets at the request of the home owner who was evacuated because of the Cranston Fire. Photo taken on Saturday, July 28, 2018 in Idyllwild. Richard Lui/The Desert Sun

Kyle Stephens and Carra Mathewsod with Riverside County Animal Services feed chickens and a turkey on a property near McCall Park Rd. Animal services are caring a number animal who's owners have evacuate due to the Cranston Fire. Photo taken on Saturday, July 28, 2018. Richard Lui/The Desert Sun

Kyle Stephens and Carra Mathewsod with Riverside County Animal Services feed chickens and a turkey on a property near McCall Park Rd. Animal services are caring a number animal who's owners have evacuate due to the Cranston Fire. Photo taken on Saturday, July 28, 2018. Richard Lui/The Desert Sun

Riverside County Animal Services feed chickens and a turkey on a property near McCall Park Rd. Animal services are caring a number animal who's owners have evacuate due to the Cranston Fire. Photo taken on Saturday, July 28, 2018. Richard Lui/The Desert Sun

Ryan Long, the interim shelter manager at the San Jacinto Valley Animal Campus plays with a evacuated dog from the Cranston Fire on Thursday, July 26, 2018 in San Jacinto. The shelter has received 15 cats and 26 dogs from the fire according to Long. Some were brought in by their owners and some by emergency responders. Richard Lui/The Desert Sun

A cat evacuated from the Cranston Fire at the San Jacinto Valley Animal Campus on Thursday, July 26, 2018 in San Jacinto. The shelter has received 15 cats and 26 dogs from the fire according to Ryan Long, the interim shelter manager at the shelter. Some were brought in by their owners and some by emergency responders. Richard Lui/The Desert Sun

Reba Coulter and Auggie Berg sat side-by-side on the opposite side of the theater. They watched a movie on Coulter's laptop and appeared much like a couple — until both revealed they had only just met on Wednesday, because of the Cranston Fire.

Berg, a hiker on the Pacific Crest Trail, started his tread in Idyllwild, determined to reach Canada. Like any typical hiker, he accounted for all kinds of hazards but never imagined an unexpected fire. He put his backpack down and got off the trail for some supplies, but then couldn’t get back on. Unsettled, he was told to evacuate and that's when he got on the Idyllwild Shuttle, which makes free stops in Hemet and Banning.

Coulter runs the Idyllwild Shuttle, but she doesn’t drive it. “I was evacuated and had to leave anyway, so I thought, I should go down and check on the people. I didn’t want them to feel they had been abandoned here.” The driver of the shuttle bus managed to go around Palm Desert to where she lives, and Coulter didn’t want the others to feel as though they had been forgotten.

Grateful for his new friend Coulter and the evacuation site, Berg said, “They gave us – honestly – excellent service. We had great food." Ruby’s, In-N-Out, Farmer’s Boys and a few other restaurant chains provided a variety of dishes that included pasta, chicken, pastrami, cheeseburgers and fries. There was enough for seconds, Berg said.

For 14 years, Coulter commuted from Orange County to the house she bought up in the mountains. Idyllwild offered her the privacy and seclusion Orange County never could. She first fell in love with the natural beauty of Idyllwild, she said. “I mean, the minute I started up the hill from Hemet, I felt my spirits lift. I just always felt there was something very spiritual about the place.”

Having lived through several fires, including the Mountain Fire that happened five years ago and left her scared for her home, Coulter said she knows how others are feeling, but remains “pretty confident” that firefighters will get the blaze under control.

She can't wait to return to her spiritual place, but she "divorced" the things she left behind.

“They’re only things; they’re material things,” she said. “What’s important is that no one has lost their life. It would be devastating to lose a home, but as long as you have your health – that’s what it’s about. You can survive.”